How to Write an Intelligence

Product in the Bottom Line Up

Front (BLUF) Format
This exercise will demonstrate how to
write an intelligence product in the BLUF
format, using an intelligence assessment
produced by the U.S. Department of
Justice (DOJ) National Drug Intelligence
Center (NDIC) as an example.
While youre reading, keep in mind that
the point of this exercise is to demonstrate
the proper format for an intelligence
piece, not to teach you about drug money
laundering or prepaid cards.

Your projects Title, Executive

Summary, and Introduction will
be written last. To find out why,
see page 7.
In this report, the Executive
Summary is called Key Judgments.
Regardless of its name, this sections
purpose to summarize the piece
remains the same.

Why, as intelligence analysts, are we so concerned about learning how to write in the BLUF format? Why
dont we each write in the style that suits us best?

Like all successful products,

intelligence products must be tailored to meet the needs of their customers:
policymakers and commanders.
These busy men and women rely on clear, concise, and accurate intelligence reporting to make daily
decisions that affect U.S. national security, U.S. policies, and the lives of U.S. servicemen and -women.
Arranging your intelligence reporting in the BLUF format helps them efficiently locate and comprehend the
information they need.

Background:
The section that follows the
Introduction should include background
information that your audience will
need in order to understand the results
of your analysis. By presenting this
information here, the next section can
focus entirely on your analysis without
getting bogged down with explanatory
details and technical jargon. Because
your product should focus primarily on
the results of your analysis rather than
the research you conducted to perform
it, this section should be concise without
sacrificing clarity. This section can be
titled in any manner that is appropriate
to its contents.

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF):

In the BLUF format, the first sentence
of each paragraph will sum up all of the
information in the paragraph. A good
BLUF should cover all of the
information in a paragraph, like an
umbrella. If the paragraph contains any
information that doesnt fall under the
BLUFs umbrella, that information
should be moved to a more appropriate
paragraph or the BLUF should be
changed to include the additional
information. Following the BLUF, the
component sentences in the paragraph
should be arranged from most to least
important.

Using a BLUF and arranging sentences from most to least important ensures that readers are immediately
aware of your products most important points and that readers can locate information easily.
It is most effective to get right to the point, which is why BLUF is the best way for intelligence analysts to
communicate with policymakers and commanders, who are often too busy to read and carefully digest every word of
the intelligence products they rely upon to make decisions. Summarizing each paragraph at its beginning allows
decisionmakers to quickly skim intelligence products without sacrificing clarity. Because materials that are not in the
BLUF formatsuch as academic textsmay contain paragraphs with several important ideas located at the
beginning, middle, or end, readers who skim these publications may inadvertently miss important information.
Moreover, the BLUF format also helps readers locate information. For example, a reader looking for information on
types of prepaid cards would, by skimming the BLUFs in the referenced document, immediately understand that the
required information is located in the paragraph circled in red (above).

Analysis:
The section that follows the
Background section will contain your
analysis, and will generally be the
longest part of the paper. This section
is often called Substantiation
because it substantiates the assertions
originally made in the Introduction
(see page 7).
When communicating your analysis it
is imperative that you communicate
in a way that is accurate, brief and
clear (see page 4). Writing clear and
concise products forces analysts to
carefully order their thoughts and
think critically, and prevents
accidental or intentional
misrepresentation of the facts, thus
improving the final analytical
product.
There is no place for the analysts
opinion or editorializing in
intelligence analysis. Everything that
you write must be based on facts that
have been analyzed logically and, as
much as possible, without biases.
This section can be titled in any
manner that is appropriate to its
contents.

Footnotes should be used to convey additional background information, such as definitions, that
is not appropriate for inclusion in the background section.
Using footnotes to convey this extra information maintains the flow of paragraphs and prevents
paragraphs from becoming cluttered with unnecessary concepts. Footnotes also function as an
excellent way to communicate to both well-informed and novice audiences in the same document by
providing the well-informed reader the opportunity to read straightforward analysis without
interruption, while still providing the novice reader with ample background information.

Accuracy, Brevity, and Clarity:

In intelligence writing its imperative
that the language used is as clear,
concise, and to-the-point as possible.
Carefully chosen language that is
accurate, brief, and clear leaves
nothing to interpretation, and greatly
reduces the likelihood that a
decisionmaker will misinterpret your
analysis, and, as a result, make a
decision that is contrary to U.S.
interests. As a member of the
intelligence community, national
security and policies will be affected
by, and the lives of servicemen and
-women and civilians may depend on,
your analysis and your ability to
communicate it to decisionmakers in
a way that is nothing less than crystal
clear.

BLUF
INFORMATION

Think of a BLUF as an umbrella:

All of the information in each
paragraph should be covered
by the BLUF.

In each paragraph, arrange

the details from most to
least important.

Text Boxes, Charts, and

Graphs:
Text boxes are commonly used
in the body of an intelligence
product to draw attention to
important concepts or highlight
anecdotal material. The textbox
on page 2 of the referenced
assessment is used to highlight
important information that must
be known for the reader to
understand the remainder of the
assessment.
Charts and graphs should be
used in the body of an
intelligence product to help
simplify important concepts.
For instance, statistical
information that is readily
understood when displayed in a
graph is often difficult to grasp
when presented as text.
Lengthy or complicated charts,
however, should be located in
an appendix.

Context:
Use this section to provide the reader with the context of your analysis, but be careful not to confuse
context with background. The Context section should give your reader a setting for your analysis by
providing additional information about the set of circumstances or facts regarding the issue youve
analyzed, while the background section should supply the reader with information that is essential to
understanding the issue. Compare the referenced Scope of the Industry section to the Background
section of this document; note that a reader who was unfamiliar with the concepts outlined in the
Background section would not have the necessary knowledge required to make sense of the Context
section. The Context section can be titled in any manner that is appropriate to its contents.

Outlook:
The Outlook, or conclusion,
should neatly sum up the content
of the paper. As such, the
conclusion should never
introduce new ideas.
Although the Outlook section of
the referenced assessment
includes new information, it
doesnt include any new ideas.
Rather, the Outlook expands
upon ideas that have already
been addressed in the Analysis
section. It is the presentation of
these ideas not the ideas
themselves that is new.
This section can be titled in any
manner that is appropriate to its
contents.

Editing:
Dont resent the editing process everyone needs an editor, because no one writes a good first draft. Editors are
necessary to identify biases, point out weaknesses in writing (for example, concepts that were insufficiently
explained but, as written, made perfect sense to you and your peers, who understand the issues too thoroughly to
notice such inconsistencies), correct grammar, and so on. Every intelligence agency has lots of editors, ranging
from other analysts in your section to supervisors in your chain of command to professional editors in the
publications department. Although editing may seem painful at times, your product is improved at every stage of
the process.
The point of this exercise is to help you improve your writing by familiarizing you with the BLUF model for
intelligence products, not to attempt the impossible (that is, magically making you write products that are just
right the first time). Remember that writing in any genre is a process a process that includes editing (i.e., lots of
well-informed and well-intentioned help) and relax.

Title, Introduction, and

Executive Summary:
Your Title, Introduction, and
Executive Summary will usually
be the last part of your product
that is written, because each of
these components must
summarize everything contained
in the product.
The Title of an intelligence
product should function as the
ultimate BLUF in your product.
The Title which should
succinctly represent the contents
of the product should be thought
of as a contract between you and
your reader, in that you promise
to provide the reader with no
more and no less information than
the Title conveys. Creating an
accurate Title is extremely
important because the Title is
often your first and only
opportunity to catch the attention
of a decisionmaker.
The Executive Summary and the
Introduction, both of which
should summarize all of the most
important points in a product,
have very similar functions.
Generally, Executive Summaries
are designed to be stand-alone
documents of one or two pages
that can convey the analytical
impact of the full intelligence
product (minus the details) to
busy decisionmakers. An
Introduction should briefly and
generally sum up the main points
of the paper, like a less-detailed
Executive Summary. In some
intelligence products that include
Executive Summaries, the
Introduction may be omitted;
however, it is usually
recommended that both the
Executive Summary and the body
of the paper (Introduction,
Background, Analysis, Context,
and Outlook) be treated as standalone documents.

The title of your product is often your only opportunity to

market your product to decisionmakers, so it must accurately
and concisely represent your analysis.
The title Cloak of Mist: The Keys To Disappearing
is unlikely to appeal to policymakers or commanders, who are too
busy to waste time guessing whether the writing is an essay about
performing magic tricks, a Harry Potter book, or an analysis of a
relevant intelligence issue.
The Keys to Disappearing: Essential Tools for Covert Agent
Tradecraft is a much better title that immediately conveys the subject
of the work to decisionmakers who may be interested in the topic.

Accuracy, Brevity, and Clarity

in Title Construction:
Even good titles, such as
Looking Back: What Todays Use
of Covert Action Should Consider
with Regard to Past Failures and
Successes, can be improved.
Although this title accurately
conveys the subject of the
intelligence product to
decisionmakers, it is not yet
concise nor clear.
Clear intelligence writing is as
direct and literal as possible,
which prevents misinterpretation.
If accepted literally, however, this
title could be confusing: today
is not using covert action.
Brief intelligence writing gets
directly to the point without using
extra words, thus increasing
clarity. The wordiness of this title
prevents it from being readily
understood.
A revised title such as Covert
Action: The Lessons of Past
Failures and Successes
accurately, briefly, and clearly
represents the products content.

Bibliography and Citations:

Government publications rarely include
detailed bibliographies or citations. When
drafting an intelligence piece, however,
the analyst should always keep records of
information sources in the form of
detailed citations and a bibliography.
Although this often helps analysts keep
large amounts of materials organized in
the short term, its especially useful when
managers or customers ask questions
about data sources weeks, months, or
years after a product was written. For
projects which involve the analysis of a
large amount of data, it is also helpful to
keep an informal record of the
methodology used to analyze the data.
For this class, your final project must
include citations and a bibliography.
Henley-Putnam University requires the
use of Chicago style according to Kate
Turabians Manual for Writers. Footnotes
or endnotes will be the standard for
source citations, not parenthetical
references and reference lists.